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Swing, baby, swing!

I’ve previously mentioned my love of saxophones, and that love most definitely extends to big band music—and when that big band comes with an unashamed lifting of early-twentieth-century aesthetics and choreography, IU’s The Red Shoes has practically got me groveling at its feet.

We’ve been (slowly but steadily) hitting the major points of IU’s discography in this column, starting with Good Day and continuing on with A Cruel Fairy Tale. We’re at the point in her musical history where she’s trying to shuffle off the yokes of her cutesy idol image and striving to be something greater. 2013's The Red Shoes was the first time that IU really started to incorporate relatively strenuous choreography into her performance; compare the steps in this 2010 Good Day performance versus this one.

To highlight that, the above video is the performance version. A full, plot-centric music video also exists, and it’s worth a watch—but I always find myself coming back to the first one, to marvel at both the choreography and the picture-perfect set and color palette.